Visnu's Children: Prenatal Life-Cycle Rituals in South India | Ute H?sken

The Vaikhānasas, a group of Brahmanic priests in the Viṣṇu temples of south India, can look back on a long and turbulent history, that is characterized by the effort of claiming their status against rivalling priests. Central to this monograph is a controversy, ongoing for centuries, as to what makes a person eligible to perform the rituals in Viṣṇu temples: does birth or an initiation create the ideal intermediary between the god and humans? Since the 14th century CE the discussions in the relevant Sanskrit texs centre around the question of whether the Vaikhānasas priests must undergo an initiation including a branding on the upper arms, or whether their particular prenatal life-cycle ritual viṣṇubali makes them eligible to perform temple ritual. As hereditary temple priests the Vaikhānasas’ own stance is explicit: they are Viṣṇu’s own children, preordained for temple service already before birth. In addition to the textual perspective, three instances of local conflicts from the 19th/20th centuries about the question of whether the Vaikhānasas require an initiation are analysed in their contexts. Furthermore, three examples of present-day performances of the viṣṇubali ritual are presented and interpreted in the light of the relation between text and performance.